Welcome to our new Galaxy S5 release date and specifications article, which is everything the title suggests. The successor to the market-leadingGalaxy S3 and Galaxy S4 was shown off by Samsung today, confirming many rumours about the new smartphone. See all MWC news. View our MWC live blog.

On this page we'll bring you all of the information about the new Galaxy S5, including when we can expect to be able to buy the new Galaxy S5, and the new features and specs it has. We'll keep updating this page with information as it appears.

The Galaxy S2 was the first Android phone to challenge the iPhone's dominance of the smartphone market. The Galaxy S3 was the first non-Apple smartphone that we could honestly say was a good if not better than the iPhone of the day. And we love the Galaxy S4, so we can certainly say that the S5 is a hugely important one, and now we finally know all of the facts. See also: Galaxy S5 vs iPhone 5S smartphone comparison review.

Samsung Galaxy S5: Release date in the UK

We had been expecting Samsung to make the Galaxy S5 available in March, but it looks like we'll have to wait until 11 April to get our hands on the new smartphone. Samsung says it'll be launching the Galaxy S5 on 11 April in more than 100 countries.

Samsung, Carphone Warehouse and networks including Three and Vodafone have announced that the Galaxy S5 will be available to pre-order on 28 March - and Carphone Warehouse is expecting huge demand.

A Carphone Warehouse spokesperson said: "We've seen record numbers of pre-registrations for the Samsung Galaxy S5 compared to its predecessors so we know that customer demand for this new handset is exceptionally high. We’re expecting pre-orders to go through the roof when we open on 28 March as a huge number of Samsung fans are coming toward the end of their contracts and will be looking to upgrade to a new, yet still familiar, device."

Vodafone will also be taking pre-orders from 28 March and has confirmed that it will be exclusively selling the Copper Gold model of the Galaxy S5.

Samsung Galaxy S5: Price in the UK

The official price for the Samsung Galaxy S5 is £579 but as usual you can get it cheaper than that.

As you would expect the Galaxy S5 will be available from all the major networks and big name retailers. That includes EE, O2, Vodafone, Three, Carphone Warehouse and Phones 4U. A typical contract price is around £40 per month. Read: Galaxy S5: where to buy in the UK.

If you're looking to buy the Galaxy S5 outright then SIM-free pricing is below the suggested retail price of £579. Clove has it for just £522 while other online retailers including Amazon, Expansys and Unlocked Mobiles have a price tag of around £550. Carphone Warehouse's SIM-free price is £579.

The price keeps it in the same ball park as the iPhone 5S, a lot more expensive than the Nexus phones and the Moto G, but at the premium end of the market for a premium phone.

Samsung Galaxy S5: Design

So, what's the Galaxy S5 like? While the S5 doesn't have a metallic design as previously rumoured, it does come in four shimmery colours: Electric Blue, Copper Gold, Shimmer White and Charcoal Black. They each have a perforated design, too.

The S5 measures 142 by 72.5 by 8.1mm, and weighs 145g. That's actually 15g heavier than the S4, and a little thicker too, but remember its display is 0.1 inches bigger.

One of the biggest cheers of the launch event came as Samsung revealed that the S5 is IP67 water & dust resistant like the Sony Xperia Z range, meaning it should be more durable.

New Galaxy S5: Display

New Galaxy S5: Processor

The Samsung Galaxy S5 has had a significant power boost over its predecessor, with a 2.5GHz Quad core processor compared with the S4's 1.9GHz chip. As expected, it runs Android 4.4.2 Kitkat.

New Galaxy S5: Camera

One rumour that did prove to be correct was GSMarena's prediction that the Galaxy S5 would have a 16Mp rear-facing camera (compared with the S4's 13Mp camera) with improved image stabilisation. It also has a new selective focus mode that acts a bit like the aperture on an SLR for depth of field effects, and speedy auto-focus that Samsung says will enable you to focus your image in less than a third of a second – the fastest ever for a smartphone.

A HDR mode has been introduced too, and also works for video.

The front-facing camera is the same 2Mp as the S4's.

New Galaxy S5: Battery

Samsung has given the battery in the S5 a boost. The 2,800 mAh battery offers 12 hours of video playback, according to the company.

New Galaxy S5: Connectivity

Samsung's Galaxy S5 has full category 4 LTE connectivity, as well as WiFi MIMO (802.11ac). This is the first smartphone to ever have such a combo. Plus, the new Download Booster in the S5 means you should be able to download 1GB of data in 30 seconds, says Samsung. Download Booster uses a combination of WiFI and LTE to download data.

New Galaxy S5: New features

The Samsung Galaxy S5 also has an all-new Finger Scanner that will enable secure mobile payments and will also provide access to a 'Private Mode' that noone else will be able to get into.

There's a new Kids Mode with dedicated apps to protect your children (and your S5) while they're using it, which could be a real boon for parents with tech-loving little-ones.

One of the most interesting and useful (hopefully) features is the Ultra Power Saving Mode, which will automatically turn your display to Black and White and turn off all features apart from calls and texts when you're almost out of power. This should mean that 10% of battery will last up to 24 hours in this mode.

Another, perhaps slightly unneccesary feature is a heart rate monitor, situated just below the rear-facing camera. It's the first time a smartphone has ever had a heart rate monitor built-in.

The S5 is designed to work with any one of Samsung's three new smartwatches: the Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo and the Gear Fit.

FInd out what else is happening in Barcelona this week in our MWC Live Blog.

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Comments

ProGadgets said: Its good as model samsung is concerneveryone like this phone well

jitvas said: Seriously If Samsung S5 will have non removable battery then Samsung Note 3 will be my last choice and i will use Samsung Note 3 until i find any other phone that will be better than Note 3 and should have a removal Battery option off coursehttpwwwreviews42comsamsu

Jackson_Johnson said: the galaxy is already a better SP then apple I have an S3 wife has an iphone 5s and I certainly would never trade her

Jackson_Johnson said: Apple wont have a bigger SP however they will have a big announcement of several more colors available

Jackson_Johnson said: Your quite correct Andy Apple didnt invent fingerprint scanning its been around a long time before apples first smart phone Personally I think its worthless to have a FP scanner on a smartphone in the first place

kayy- said: Lets see how long it takes for the charging port to stop working

Gadget2us said: samsung galaxy s5 battery coverFull-Wrapped Edge leather InjectionNegative Direction Wrapped Edge technologyLeather injection injects the TPU PCABS with Leather with the help of a machine under the proper temperature and speed control Not with glue thus not only making the cases more durable but also have a nice and rich texture with no bad smellwebsitehttpm-thinkcomcnmaybe click herewwwgadget2uscomshophttptaogoldmmtaobaocomsh

Ricky Bhui said: Samsung Galaxy S6 might released in first half of 2015 and with some extra-ordinary features that might change the world of technology and it is the most awaited smartphone in the upcoming future as seen on httptechfuture4ucomsamsun

carlos said: Dude get out you probably never had a new phone like these thats why you a hating ass

Carlos said: Your probably sayinthis cause you never had a phone like these

gaius said: yes

Matt Egan said: Dude go outside for a bit Look at the sky Have a conversation with a human You are clearly making yourself unhappy

Matt Egan said: Oh n What a shame that instead of reading the article you had to project on to it your own anti-Apple paranoia The idea that this article is Apple advertising is laughable As indeed are you Such is life People like iPhones For a time iPhone was shorthand for a smartphone that people wanted You may not like that but it is true

n said: They werent the first smartphone to have software specifically written for the touchscreen plenty of earlier touchscreens had this indeed this is trivially true you need the software to support the touchscreen in order to do anythingGive credit where credit is due - yes Ill give credit the day Apple fans give credit to the large number of innovations done by companies other than Apple But I never ever do Instead its just Apple Apple Apple 7 years on and Apple fans are still trying to scrape the barrel whilst everything else before and after gets ignoredI dont see how touch is a bolt on in Android It wasnt an answer either - development began in 2003 and bought out by Google in 2006 The market was never blindsided by iphones - it was NokiaSymbian that led before Android Yes I will tell you your post is inaccurate - because it is factually untrue please look up the sales stats by platform since 2007 - you will be surprisedYou might as well claim that Mac OS X dominates PC platforms with 90 share The only blindsided was the media being blinded with their iphone obsessionThe first iphone wasnt even a smartphone by any of the definitions anyway since it couldnt even support apps Even with the 3G version Id count it as a feature phone due to its locked down and limited nature unless you define smartphone so broadly as to include all feature phones Counting iphones as smartphones then comparing only smartphone sales rather than phonie sales is just another example of the misleading arguments it meant that 100 of Apple sales got compared to only a minority of other companies yet even by that metric they failed to outdo Nokia and Samsung

n said: The Galaxy S2 was the first Android phone to challenge the iPhones dominance of the smartphone market Not true at all - the iphone platform never dominated Symbian dominated and was the number one smartphone platform until 2011 when Android overtook By company Nokia was number one then overtaken by Samsung Apple do better by individual device sales but only because they had one per generation whilst other companies had loads - in no sense did one device dominate and its quite telling that despite there being hundreds of Android devices loads of Samsung phones even on individual device sales the Galaxy S flagship even took that away from Apple Anyhow the best selling individual smartphone of all time is the Nokia 5230 from 2009The Galaxy S3 was the first non-Apple smartphone that we could honestly say was a good if not better than the iPhone of the daySpeak for yourself at any given time I preferred non-Apple phones as did millions of others I wouldnt even count the earlier iphones as smartphones the first one wasnt even a feature phone since it couldnt do appsNot sure why Apple have to be mentioned in an article about Samsung it just spreads pro-Apple myths and leads to annoying arguments in the comments Even the article has to be rounded off with an off-topic and old link to a buying guide of last year Apple models Why not stick something relevant to Samung Articles about Apple news dont get filled with references to market leaders like Samsung and Nokia or Microsoft if it was an article about Macs why do we have to have constant desperate Apple advertising

Muira said: well every previous iphone has been bad so i dont expect any different from the next one

Muira said: The best thing about the s5 is one thing not many seem to be talking about - the fact that it gives you the option of not installing all the bloatware when you first boot it upWhen will manufacturers in general learn that very few people want half their phones storage taken up with apps they will never use To me an ideal android would come with nothing but the play store on it allowing me to install just the apps i want and none of the stuff i dont without having to root it to be able to remove them thus invalidating the warranty

How_delightful said: The fingerprint scanner wasis on my Fujitsu phone five years ago The Fujitsu Arrows F-01AThat was also the worlds first waterproof internet phoneJapanese who the Koreans and Americans always end up copying